<![CDATA[The aim of this article is to measure the extent to which voters cast their ballots strategically at the Romanian 2008local elections. Our interest was prompted by the introduction of a mixed-member electoral system for local elections. Onecommon characteristic of mixed-member electoral systems is that they present the voter with the opportunity for strategicbehavior. For the purpose of measuring strategic voting we use three methods: 1. we compare the number of votes received bycandidates in the single member district race with the number of votes received by their parties in the proportional representationrace; 2. we calculate the difference between the votes received by the two best ranked candidates to determine whether the racebetween the two was tight, which would stimulate strategic behavior; 3. we calculate the second-first ratio (SF-ratio) proposed byGary Cox. Our results show that that only a small percentage of the voters behaved strategically although the newly introducedmixed-member electoral system presents them with the opportunity to do so.]]>
Copyrights © 2012
